Washington condemns 'offensive and absurd’ Israeli attack on John Kerry

US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Wednesday hit out against a torrent of abuse from "respected voices in Israel talking about the secretary of state, claiming that he supports Hamas, which is offensive and absurd."
 
She added that Washington had been providing Israel "a level of support which has been quite frankly unprecedented in our history, even when we stood alone."
 
Kerry has been sharply criticized in the Israeli press since he put forward a ceasefire plan on Friday which the Israeli security cabinet unanimously rejected.
 
"He's a friend of Israel, but with friends like these, sometimes it's better to negotiate with your enemies," Nahum Barnea wrote in the Yediot Aharonot.
 
Kerry has also been called in the Israeli press a "bull in a china shop," and an "amateur who thinks he can solve the world's problems with his presence alone."
 
Harf said "that kind of criticism coming from any ally, certainly Israel, just really has no place in this discussion."
 
"The hours all of us have spent with the secretary in Jerusalem, trying to get Middle East peace, trying to protect Israel's security, I think that's why it's so disappointing," she noted.
 
Israel has been relentlessly pounding the besieged Gaza Strip for more than three weeks. More than 1,350 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded, including women and children. The United Nations says over 80 percent of the fatalities in Gaza have been civilians.
 
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has been launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
 
Israelis have accused Kerry, whose country is Israel's strongest military and financial backer, as seeking a ceasefire that is more favorable to Hamas and is dismissive of key Israeli concerns.